Playing pretend
by Izzu
Summary: Some of the things he ended up doing wasn't always pleasant. But Takatora could always pretend that it wasn't as bad as he thought it was.


Playing pretend

By Izzu

o

o

_"You are not allowed to mingle with those who are beneath our station. Remember that."_

_Why? Why can't I be friends with those other kids?_

_"Every single person in this world have their own place and purpose. It's best that neither one of those mingle together nor be placed where they do not belong."_

_Can't I treat other people as my equals?_

_"Remember your station! Do not associate yourself with people who served no purpose to you. You are a Kureshima heir, so you need to act like one."_

Ever since he could remember, he had always been raised in a strictly manner to ensure that he himself would become the best in the things he do; be part of the elite, the cream of the crop. Because he was the oldest son and heir to the Kureshima, he needed to obtain all the qualifications that would entitle him into that position. To bear the responsibility of being the heir of the Kureshima.

He was never allowed to be involved with people who were not of equal rank with him. He wasn't even allowed to even _interact_ with those people; or treat them in kindness. He had to maintain an air of authority at all times, since that was the quality of leadership that he needed to instill inside of him. Also, he was never allowed to be anything but the top of his class.

That was the rule of the Kureshima; that was what his father had raised him with. There was no room for disagreement, refusal to abide to those rules are out of the question. And Takatora knew too well the _consequences_ for breaking those rules.

Once, Takatora had befriended a kid from his class. The kid was not some rich brat; the kid's father was one of the employees working under Yggdrassil. It was by sheer luck that the father managed to get his son to enroll into the same school as him.

The kid and his family were decent people; they had always treated him warmly, almost like a part of their own. Something he never got to experience at home. But one day his father found out; the next day the kid had transferred out of their school and even the father had been fired from the company.

He never tried to befriend any other kids whose background were not approved by his father since then.

There was also one other time, he had this servant who had always served him from before he could remember. Due to his parents rarely ever present at home, it was this man who raised him into the person he was now. Takatora was very close to the servant, one could say that they were more like father-son rather than servant-master. One day, the servant had fallen ill and being the kind soul as he was; he told the servant to take the time off to rest and get better. That didn't go so well either.

It bothered him greatly, to have to watch the people he cared a lot... receive harsh punishment for the things he did. All he wanted was to be treated normally; none of those overblown veneration that often times felt insincere. He didn't feel the circumstances of his birth any different from others, yet due to this he wasn't allowed to partake on the normal activities others of his age would have blissfully enjoyed. It was then he realized the folly of his actions. There was nothing else that he should do but follow the rules. That way, everyone could lead a better life.

So Takatora stopped openly showing his kindness, to the point he could conceal it perfectly. A cold persona would command respect from people, kindness have no place in his world. Even if there still be people he would grow to care and love; he'll pretend that he didn't care about them.

Because that was easier.

That way, it would _hurt_ less.

xxx

"So... should we proceed to the next phase? Before we could create a driver that could be mass-produced and used by many, I'll need to gather more data to make it safer. That means getting more _test subjects_ that we could use to test the drivers."

"Test subjects?" Takatora asked as Ryoma gave him a look of mock surprise.

"Well, Zangetsu can't handle all of the Inves on its own... and we only have just one _you_. Wouldn't you think that it's better to have more people who could use the armor I've created to help you out?"

Ryoma grinned at him as he picked up another Sengoku driver from his desk. "But right now, doing that would be a bit tricky, don't you think? For now the driver could only be used by the specific person who activated it; and cannot be freely used by others. A bit troublesome, when you think about it."

Takatora shrugged. "Make sense. It would be problematic to have the driver to be locked to a specific user, that meant it cannot be exchanged or reused by other people. So... how would you find these... _test subjects_?"

Ryoma whistled, as he sauntered around leisurely. "Well, there's a lot of those street kids all around the city... isn't it? How about we use them as guinea pigs? We'll introduce the lockseeds amongst those kids as sort of toy, a game or something... and then we gradually release the drivers to some chosen _candidates_. We have them use the drivers and lockseeds to their hearts content and in return we'll have all the data we'll need to mass produce the drivers!"

_Kids... as guinea pigs, huh?_

It wasn't something he felt comfortable of doing, but if he could pretend that they were indeed mere test subjects and not _kids the same age as his own brother—_it should be okay, right? It's not as if those kids would be facing the dangers of Helheim _directly_, they would be handling the Inves in a _controlled_ environment. That should mean that it would be _harmless_, right?

"Are you sure that's all you need? To have more _guinea pigs_ to test your driver to the limits? Nothing else other than that?"

Ryoma gave him his most innocent of expressions. "Yep. That's all... scout's honor. After that we could take all the drivers back and all would be over."

Right. It's that simple. All he needed was to _pretend_ that the kids were just guinea pigs. Nothing more than that. Don't think of them as _people_. Then, it should be okay.

Since _playing pretend_ was something he was really good at.


End file.
